In 1862, harmonicas came to the U.S and began a unique musical journey, starting out from the lowest of places--the fields, farms and plains. Turns out, tho, the harmonica had a Fearsome Foursome rooting for it from the start: Quality, Novelty, Portability and Price. These traits inspired broad trial. And trial soon led to experimentation. As a result, the new way of playing that's now called "crossharp" was born. (Crossharp is that style of play in which the 2 hole "draw" becomes the tonal center instead of the 1-, 4- and 7-hole "blows;" it's notorious for that "bent" bluesy sound.)

As crossharp took hold, the harmonica's status as an instrument climbed. In the 1940s, Little Walter added the hand-held microphone for amplification. The loud-sobbing nightclub sound further propelled its legitimacy and popularity.

Around its 100-year anniversary, the harmonica found itself in demand. Blues harmonica soloists were needed to meet that demand, and soon market structures had become established to support the little rebel with the soulful, urban sound.

Meanwhile, the rebel Bob Dylan was carving out his own artistic and economic niche.

Dylan marks an interesting aberration in the harmonica's evolution. Because crossharp harmonica playing had become so prevalent by then, Dylan, for aesthetic reasons, intentionally sidestepped the crossharp path, deciding instead to play the harmonica straight. Though seemingly a step backwards for the instrument, a new pathway was ultimately created. Call this re-emergent "folksy" sound the "Roots" or "Americana" path.

Another important discovery emerged around the mid to late 70s--"overblowing." By doing just that, a skilled player found he or she could "hit" previously missing notes on the basic 10-holed, Richter-tuned harmonica. In the right hands, the diatonic harmonica today can be played fully chromatically.

Amazing!

This raises the question, though.

What exactly are the "right" hands for the harmonica?

Rebels feel illegitimate when they achieve legitimacy. Along the course of its journey, the instrument seems to have become the tool of an "establishment," an establishment replete with elite artists, publics, professional go-betweens, educators, publishers, mass marketers and promoters. In its transformation to a legitimate musical instrument, the harmonica has lost something; namely, its innocence, accessibility and novelty. And this has cost it a portion of its mass appeal.

The little musical rebel that marched up out of the marsh now appears positioned for a fate worse than obscurity; call it irrelevance. That is, unless something new this way comes to revive the harmonica's status as an instrument of the people.

With the addition of flash memory, the harmonica's novelty status, certainly, is instantly reinvigorated in the FlashHarp. Trial is encouraged, too, and not just among hotshots in biker garb and mirror sunglasses but among new players from unrelated areas--some musical, some not.

In a way, ironically, the higher-touch FlashHarp returns the instrument to the magical hobo campground where its journey began--where nobody prejudged it or expected anything in particular from it, musically, at all.

FlashHarp's novelty aspect upgrades the harmonica to include something as valuable as music itself: usefulness.

But success is a double-edged sword for pop icons, and the diminutive harmonica, as hero of our tale, proved not to be impervious, and sadly, many who picked up the old single-purpose harmonica gave up, only to put the thing in the back of a drawer.

Fortunately, the advent of the dual-purpose harmonica USB gave the harmonica a much-needed second wind. Buyers of the playable harmonica USB are liberated from the harmonicas' high expectations by virtue of its USB/flash-memory utility ("Hey, it's just my flash drive. What do you expect?") Further, it can be used to store digital documents, pictures, videos, music, you name it.

Instead of diminishing the harmonica, the playable, dual-purpose USB counterpart has turned out to return the instrument to its former glorious and popular, experimental status. People are not only pursuing their musical interests. They are going about their normal "digital" days, transporting work, play and love letters as they go. Only now, such content is being more stylishly and fashionable toted about.

For hundreds of new-breed type user-players--as well as for overall innovation with the instrument--this comes as good news, indeed. Even Mr. Alger would be impressed!

But wait Haratio! That's not all!

For now another innovation has been added to the harmonica USB. This is the ability to have a convenient necklace added to the instrument, as well. This USB necklace is made possible by a 24-inch ball chain that connects to the harmonica USB by a brass "finding" on the side opposite the USB plug. The result is only attractive and, importantly, puts the added utility of flash-drive convenience "around the neck."

In addition to the harmonica necklace, to allow the user to turn the device into something truly personal and unique, personalization can be added to the unique device. This is vital, should its user desire to truly distinguish themselves. The personalized text is etched into the area of black opposite the holes, so a person facing the user/player can view the text while the instrument is played.

The harmonica USB can also have loaded onto it, a highly instructive video harmonica lesson.

When I grew up, my dad had a dream for me—that I would become the next piano prodigy. Problem was, he never played an instrument. In fact, he listened to very little music, himself.

Naturally, he never got his dream. I never glommed onto the whole piano-playing thing. Instead, I grew up to be a harmonica player.

Flash ahead a million years... Now, I've got kids of my own, both of whom are fine musicians. But I never said a word to them about playing an instrument. What did I do, instead?

I modeled music-making. The whole time they were growing up I was walking around harpdoodling all the live long day (and night) on my harmonica. Result: My kids just grew up naturally believing that playing some kind of musical instrument was something one just does.

It was a natural evolution.

So one day, one of my kids said, "I want to play violin."

"OK, great!" I said.

And she's playing still.

The other child followed suit. Naturally. She actually does play the piano, and quite well, I might add.

Moral of the story: It's not important how well you play. The important thing is to play. Your kids will model their behavior after yours. Try it and let me know how it works!

If you're a harmonica player with a professional act—or even if you're not!—you might be interested in the SoulFlash. It's a 4GB flash drive in the shape of a harmonica. Got plenty of space for autographing so would make a great vehicle for your latest release... Check it out and shoot me a note here if you're interested in the SoulFlash in quantity. Lanyard is my own in pic.